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Agitprop: Production Practice in the Workers' Theatre, 1932–1942

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Douglas McDermott
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Extract

Every theatrical group which nerves itself to the effort of production has some goal which it hopes to achieve, but that of the Workers' Theatre was unique and the attempt to realize it resulted in unique organizations with unusual working methods. This goal was not cultural, but political—not art, but revolution. The production of a play was regarded as a means of organizing the workers of America into an army capable of winning the struggle for a classless society: “A theatrical performance becomes a communal rite, not unlike the primitive dances or religious ceremonies during which solo actors… tried to arouse the spectators… to participate in the rite, to take part in the struggle.” Because of this aim, each Workers' Theatre group in America between 1932 and 1942 attempted to be “an active political organization of… class conscious revolutionary workers” which would provide a model of effective revolutionary organization for its audience.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , November 1966 , pp. 115 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1966

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References

NOTES

1 For a survey of the Workers' Theatre, see my article, “The Theatre Nobody Knows: Workers' Theatre in America, 1926–1942,” Theatre Survey, VI (May, 1965), 65–82.

2 Prentis, A., “Relationship between Content and Form,” Workers' Theatre, I (September, 1931), 10.Google Scholar

3 “A Voice from the Red Players,” Workers' Theatre, II (April, 1932), 32.

4 Carter, Jean and Ogden, Jess, Everyman's Drama (New York, 1938), p. 35.Google Scholar

5 Bonn, John E., “Dram Buro Report,” Workers’ Theatre, II (May, 1932), 10.Google Scholar

6 Bonn, John E., “Problems of Play-Directing,” Workers' Theatre, I (October, 1931), 8.Google Scholar

7 “German Revolutionary Theatre,” New Masses, VI (December, 1930), 20.

8 Pack, Richard, “Shock Troupe in Action,” New Theatre, I (November, 1934), 13.Google Scholar

9 Schmidt, Dorothy, “Guest Appearances,” New Theatre News, I (March, 1940), 10.Google Scholar

10 For details on Bonn, see my article, “The Odyssey of John Bonn: A Note on Germań Theatre in America,” The German Quarterly, XXXVIII (May, 1965), 325–334.

11 Pack, p. 13.

12 Schmidt, p. 10.

13 Pack, p. 13.

14 Ober, Harry, “The Workers' Laboratory Theatre,” Workers' Theatre, I (April, 1931), 10.Google Scholar

15 Bonn, , “Dram Buro Report,” pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

16 “Voice from the Red Players,” p. 32.

17 This paragraph is based on Haller, Marg, “The Organizational Structure of the Prolet-Buehne,” Workers' Theatre, I (September, 1931), 5–7.Google Scholar

18 Ober, pp. 9–11.

19 Speigel, Aaron, “Guest Appearances,” New Theatre News, I (August/September, 1940), 11–14.Google Scholar

20 Houghton, Norris, Advance from Broadway (New York, 1941), pp. 280–282.Google Scholar

21 This description is based on the following: Elion, H., “Experience in Collective Playwriting,” Workers' Theatre, I (September, 1931), 13–14Google Scholar; Thon, M., “The Artistic Life of the Prolet-Buhne,” Workers' Theatre, I (September, 1931), 8–9Google Scholar; and Reines, Bernard, “The Collective Method in the Workers' Theatre,” Workers' Theatre, I (May, 1931), 3–1.Google Scholar

22 Ober, pp. 9–11.

23 For a discussion of these schools, see my article, “New Theatre Schools, 1932–1942,” The Speech Teacher, XIV (November, 1965), 278–285.

24 “Extracts from Minutes of First Enlarged Plenum of the International Workers' Theatrical Union,” Workers' Theatre, I (November, 1931), 2.

25 Shapiro, H., “Training the Actor for the Proletarian Theatre,” Workers' Theatre, I (July, 1931), 4.Google Scholar

26 Buchwald, Nathaniel, “The Judges Award,” Workers' Theatre, II (May, 1932), II.Google Scholar

27 H. Shapiro, p. 3.

28 Bonn, , “Problems of Play-Directing,” [continued] Workers' Theatre, I (December, 1931), p. 8.Google Scholar

29 H. Shapiro, p. 3.

30 Ibid.

31 Karnot, Stephen, “From a Director's Notebook,” New Theatre, I (September, 1934), 13.Google Scholar

32 “New Theatre School,” New Theatre News, I (January/February, 1939), 6.

33 “Meet the Theatre Union,” New Theatre, I (February, 1934), 9–10.

34 Thacher, Molly Day, “Revolutionary Staging for Revolutionary Plays,” New Theatre, I (July/August, 1934), 26.Google Scholar

35 “;Meet the Theatre Union,” p. 10.

36 Lewis, Bob, “Exercises for Actors from the Theatre of Action,” New Theatre, III (March, 1936), 31Google Scholar; (April, 1936), 39; (June, 1936), 31.

37 Buchwald, p. 11.

38 Bonn, , “Problems of Play-Directing,” (October, 1931), p. 5.Google Scholar

39 Prentis, Albert, “Basic Principles,” Workers' Theatre, I (May, 1931), 2.Google Scholar

40 This paragraph is based on Saxe, Alfred, “Directing the Agitprop Play,” Workers' Theatre, III (May/June, 1933), 3–4.Google Scholar

41 Karnot, p. 12. His emphasis.

42 Saxe, Alfred, “Newsboy—from Script to Performance,” New Theatre, I (July/August, 1934), 12–13.Google Scholar

43 Prentis, , “Basic Principles,” p. 2.Google Scholar

44 Thon, p.9.

45 Porter, Esther, “Five Workers' Theatres and One Dance Group,” Workers' Theatre, II (April, 1932), 24.Google Scholar

46 Ibid.

47 Buchwald, Nathaniel, “The Prize-winners of the Spartakiad,” Workers' Theatre, II (June/July, 1932), 10.Google Scholar

48 Gorelik, Mordecai, “Scenery: the Visual Attack,” Workers' Theatre, I (March, 1932), 3.Google Scholar

49 Ibid., pp. 4–5.

50 Pack, pp. 12, 33.

51 Spitz, Lawrence, “Let Freedom Ring on Tour,” New Theatre, III (November, 1936), 24–25.Google Scholar

52 Houghton, p. 280; and Larkin, Margaret, “Letter to the Editor,” New Masses, XXX (February 14, 1939), 32.Google Scholar

53 This description is based on the following: Pack, p. 33; Martin, Peter, “A Day With the Shock Troupe of the Workers' Lab Theatre,” Daily Worker (May 23, 1934), p. 5Google Scholar; and Warren, James, “How Members of the W. L. T. Shock Troupe Live and Work,” Daily Worker (December 28, 1934), p. 5.Google Scholar

54 Warren, p: 5.

55 “News,” Workers' Theatre, I (November, 1931), 38.

56 “Typical Booking Schedule,” New Theatre News, I (December, 1938), 13.

57 “News and Notes,” Workers' Theatre, II (June/July, 1932), 22.

58 Blake, Ben, The Awakening of the American Theatre (New York, 1935), p. 17.Google Scholar

59 Spitz, p. 25.

60 Martin, p. 7.